Health Insurance Blog

According to the article “Texas Health Insurance Plans Help Residents of the Lone Star State During Natural Disasters” by Ronnie Hamilton on bestsyndication.com, when Hurricane Ike hit Texas last year everyone with injuries, even minor, were sent to the hospital for a mandatory check up. 

Residents were strongly encouraged to seek medical attention as soon as possible to ensure everyone was safe.  Those carrying individual health insurance in Texas were grateful they were covered.  The article states that Texas has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents and this is unfortunate especially in a national natural disaster like a hurricane. 

This is just one of many reasons to be properly covered, especially if you have children.  The Texas government offers plans that are affordable.  It is also Texas law that there be programs available free or very low cost for children whose parents are unable to provide it for them.  Know your options and be sure you are protected.

President Obama will put his Chicago health insurance and health care reform fight to rest for a short moment while he goes to Copenhagen, Denmark later this week to push Chicago, IL as the location for the 2016 summer Olympics according to the article “Obama to Make Olympic Pitch” by Steve Chaggaris on cbsnews.com.

President Obama will be the first US President to have such a direct role in pitching for the Olympics being held on US soil.  Chicago has tough competition from a few other cities including Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.  Representatives from Rio de Janeiro and Madrid are also planning on making an appearance at the Copenhagen meeting. 

According to a senior administration official Obama will travel to Denmark Thursday night and return after the meeting on Friday.  There are many supporters of the push for the US Olympics to be held in Chicago and they hope that President Obama will take this cause personally.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSFL) offers a Medical Discount Card called FamilyBlue that provides discounts on health care.  FamilyBlue is not health insurance, but it does provide discounts on heath care services which is negotiated with providers.

As mentioned above, FamilyBlue is not health insurance, and should be viewed as a last resort only if health insurance cannot be obtained.  If you shop around and compare rates for individual health insurance plans in Florida you will find that there are many affordable health plans available.  A true health insurance plan will offer superior benefits and protect you more comprehensively should you have an accident or become ill.

There are two different FamilyBlue Plans.

• $14.95/mo.per family - discounts on doctor visits, medical services, and Rx drugs.
• $19.95/mo. per family - discounts on doctor visits, medical services, Rx drugs, as well as dental, vision, diabetic supplies, hearing, vitamins and more

More information about Florida health insurance.

Beth Fouhy from the Associated Press wrote a very interesting article entitled “People playing the odds on health care over costs” found on google.com.  The article discusses a group of people unsupportive of President Obama’s ideal that everyone should be required to have individual health insurance coverage.

It’s not known exactly how many of the 50 million uninsured Americans forego insurance voluntarily, but research from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that most of the uninsured are young, healthy adults, who are self employed or in low wage positions that do not offer health insurance and do not pay enough for employees to afford individual health insurance.

But it is known that some people in this group of uninsured do choose to not carry health insurance because they pay far less for health care than they would in monthly premiums.  Plus it’s possible insurance wouldn’t cover all of their medical needs even if they did pay the expensive premiums.  Under one of Congress’s proposed plans, people who opt out of carrying health insurance may have to pay a penalty.  It will be a balancing act for the people choosing to not carry health insurance if this plan does become law.

Assurant Health Insurance, a leader in individual medical, small group, and specialty health insurance products, announced earlier this month about two changes to their leadership team.  This is according to their Newsroom article “Assurant Health Announces Executive Promotions”. 

Steve Cain has been promoted to senior vice president-chief administrative and risk officer.  Jack Rogers has been promoted to senior vice president-strategic development and provider management.  Both of these men report to CEO Don Hamm. 

In Cain’s new role, he will oversee the company’s touch points, aligning claims, medical management, customer satisfaction, underwriting and risk management functions.  In Rogers’ new position he will combine his previous duties as senior VP-provider management with the strategic development and mergers and acquisition roles as well as examining the future of health care delivery going forward. 

Many people are confused by the difference between PPO health insurance and HMO health insurance.  A helpful article on insurance.com entitled “HMO vs PPO” in their FAQ section does a great job of explaining the differences.

With an HMO, which stands for health maintenance organization, members must choose a primary care doctor from a list of member doctors.  This doctor will foresee all of your general medical care and must refer you to specialists.  With PPO health insurance, which stands for preferred provider organization you can either choose a general practitioner or a specialist, without a referral which can save a lot of time.

HMO’s usually require you to see in-network doctors, whereas PPO’s do not.  But with PPO’s there often is incentive to stick with in-network doctors.  The main benefit of HMO’s compared to PPO’s is that there usually isn’t a deductible to meet and the co-payments are generally lower.  The best choice totally depends on your personal situation and your particular needs.  It’s important to take the time to evaluate each health insurance option before making a decision.

There has been much much media coverage over the past year regarding rapidly increasing health insurance rates.  Rates have increased significantly this decade for sure, however there are still affordable health insurance plans that can be found.

Individual Blue is a low cost health insurance plan for Alabama residents offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama (BCBSAL).  Individual is designed for children and young adults from birth through age 24.

• For children aged 0-14 (with the 750 plan) rates are as low as $69 per month.
• For young adults aged 15-24 with a similar plan rates are as low as $72 per month.

More information about Alabama health insurance.

During Nationwide Tour’s Utah Championship September 11-13, Humana Health Insurance, the official health benefits company of the PGA Tour, provided pedometers to all spectators to encourage healthy exercise.  This is according to an article on Humana’s website in their Newsroom. 

The promotion, called Walk it Tee to Green, advised spectators to chart how many steps they took throughout the Championship walking throughout the Willow Creek Country Club.  Everyone who reached 7,000 steps were entered into a drawing to win an iPod, and anyone who walked 10,000 steps were entered into a drawing for a iPod Touch.

Humana Health Insurance has brought the Walk it Tee to Green promotion to three other PGA Tours, including The Valero Texas Open, the HP Byron Nelson Championship, and the Stanford St. Jude Championship this year.  The total number of steps taken at these events was 9 million steps which is about 4,621 miles.  This amount of walking burned off about 406,732 calories.  Walking is one of the best exercises to keep Americans healthy and Humana Health Insurance is supporting this initiative to promote healthier living.

The US Census Bureau recently released a report that said the Cleveland area has a very high percentage of residents without health insurance coverage.

The report which was released Monday, Sept. 21, found that 22% of Cleveland residents under age 65 are uninsured.  Nationally 17% of the adult population go uninsured and in Ohio as a whole, 13.4% go without Ohio health insurance coverage.

Cleveland’s uninsured rate is the highest among large cities in Ohio.

If you live in Northeast Ohio and are uninsured because you think you can’t afford health insurance, you would be surprised as to the affordable health insurance options that you might be able to find if you shopped online and compared health plans side-by-side.

More information about Cleveland Health Insurance & Ohio Health Insurance.

On Blue Cross Blue Shield’s website there is a news article entitled “New Census Report Underscores Need for Health Care Reform”.  It has a statement from President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield Scott P. Serota.  The statement follows after the release of the report from the US Census Bureau that shows the number of uninsured Americans increased from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.4 million in 2008. 

Serota points out that no one should have to worry about having quality, affordable health insurance.  He believes that 46 million uninsured is unacceptable.  It’s an important reminder of the critical need for health care reform.  According to Serota, we should enact bipartisan health care reform this year that will give health insurance coverage to everyone. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield companies support initiatives working towards this goal.  They want to build on the employer based system currently in place.  He says the high number of uninsured is partly because of the recession, but something still needs to be done now to fix this problem.